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Originally Posted by
s2mikey 
Does every older classic film HAVE to be 4 hours long? It just seems like they are. I guess that was before sequels were invented. Im curious about this flick as Ive never seen it. Its one of those "cant miss" titles so I'll rent and prepare to be wowed by it. I mean... it is THAT good....right?
Actually, for its time, GWTW is the exception, and not the rule. In those "classic" days, the magic running time hovered around 100 minutes, more or less. 120 minutes, or 132 minutes was considered quite long. Because GWTW was already a publishing phenomenon, the audiences expected a faithful adaptation, so it became one of the rare long films of its day.
Longer films, in the 3-hour + range really did not come into vogue until the 50's, when Hollywood started churning out Biblical epics. You can add
The Ten Commandments to the 4-hour list as well. The long 3 hours + epics basically died out in the 60's, but exceptions to occur from time-to-time. Usually the long films are either epic in nature or based on long popular novels.
I actually think movies are too long today. I don't mind sitting through a 3 hr or 4 hr epic like, say,
LOTR or
Patton. I just have a problem with the fact that most movies today seem to run at least 120 or more minutes, when the 100 minute range would work just as well. 2 and a half hours for a James Bond film or a Michael Bay actioner is too long IMO
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Cant miss? Ive heard that phrase before. Im cautiously optimistic.
We shall see. There had better be some good battle scenes and CGI though.

Just kidding....

I would not say GWTW is a "can't miss" film. It's basically a romance film, and I have no doubt some will find it long and boring and too "chick flick". I have seen it many times, starting with its theatrical re-release in 1939. However, I am not quite sold on a new edition of it. I don't think I have even watched all of the last UCE DVD version. I just put it on, and looked at some scenes, thought it looked great, but never sat down for the required 4 hours. There are only so many times I feel like re-watching the entire 4 hour saga.